1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of this disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2010-157027 discloses programs (called net applications) that are installed in personal computers (PCs) connected via a network with image forming apparatuses. The net applications cause the PCs to perform process flows in collaboration with the image forming apparatuses.
In the technology disclosed in JP2010-157027, information associated with the net applications running on the PCs is sent to the image forming apparatuses via broadcasts called advertisements. More specifically, when the net applications are started, users who have started the net applications are advertised on the network. Each image forming apparatus receives the advertisements from the PCs and manages a list of users who have started the net applications on the respective PCs. In response to a command from an operator (a user), the image forming apparatus displays the list of users on an operations panel. When the operator selects the corresponding user from the list of users, a list of net applications that have been started on the PC of the selected user is downloaded into the image forming apparatus. Then, the operator can select and use one of the net applications in the list of net applications.
The above configuration enables a user to select a desired image forming apparatus from image forming apparatuses installed in, for example, an office and to use net applications on the selected image forming apparatus.
However, image forming apparatuses installed in an office do not necessarily have the same functions. For example, color image forming apparatuses and monochrome image forming apparatuses may be installed in an office. As another example, multifunction peripherals that have printing and scanning functions and printers that have only the printing function may coexist in an office.
For this reason, there may be a case where a selected image forming apparatus does not have a function to be used by a net application selected by the user on that image forming apparatus. In such a case, the user cannot obtain an expected result and needs to operate another image forming apparatus to select and execute the net application.
The above problem reduces the working efficiency of the user and may result in waste of resources such as paper.